The Jersey Devil

© 2000 Bobette Bryan

"Its head resembled that of a ram, with curled horns, and its long, thick neck was thrust forward in flight. It had long, thin wings and short legs, the front legs shorter than the hind...."

When daylight came, the residents of Bristol found hoof prints in the snow. Local trappers swore that they had never seen such tracks before.

The Lowdens of Burlington, found hoof prints in their yard and around their trash, which had been partially eaten. Almost every yard in Burlington was marked with the strange hoof prints. The prints trailed up trees, went from roof to roof, disappeared in the middle of the road and in open fields. The tracks were also found in Columbus, Hedding, Kinhora, and Rancocas.

The citizens organized a hunt to follow the tracks but the dogs wouldn't follow the trail.

On Tuesday, January 19, Mr. and Mrs. Nelson Evans awoke, hearing strange noises, and saw the creature dancing around on the rooftop of their shed. Mr. Evans said: "It was about three feet and half high, with a head like a collie dog and a face like a horse. It had a long neck, wings about two feet long, and its back legs were like those of a crane, and it had horse's hooves. It walked on its back legs and held up two short front legs with paws on them. It didn't use the front legs at all while we were watching. My wife and I were scared, I tell you, but I managed to open the window and say, 'Shoo', and it turned around barked at me, and flew away."

The sightings continued on Wednesday when a Burlington police officer and the Reverend John Pursell of Pemberton saw the Jersey Devil. Pursell said: "Never saw anything like it before."

The creature was spotted again by three posses in Haddonfield who found tracks that ended abruptly. Another posse in Collingswood, saw the devil fly off toward Moorestown. Near Moorestown, John Smith of Maple Shade, saw the devil at the Mount Carmel Cemetery. George Snyder saw the devil right after Mr. Smith, and their descriptions were identical."

On another afternoon, Mrs. J. H. White was hanging clothes in her backyard, when she saw the creature huddled up in a corner of the yard. She claimed that the creature was nearly six feet tall and that it spewed flames as she approached. She fainted, and her husband found her and the creature a short while later. He said the creature was still shooting flames. Mr. White chased the creature over a fence and it disappeared in the alley.

It wasn't long before William Wasso, an employee of the Clayton-Newfield Railroad, spotted the beast about three hundred feet ahead of him on the tracks. Wasso reported that the creature smacked the railroad track with it's tail, causing a strange explosion that melted the track for twenty feet in all directions. After the smoke cleared, there was no trace of the devil. Everyone hoped it had died.

But it hadn't.

On Thursday, the Jersey Devil was seen by the Black Hawk Social Club and by a trolley full of people in Clementon. The eyewitness descriptions were nearly identical.

In Trenton, Councilman E.P. Weeden heard the flapping of wings and later found hoof prints outside his door. The prints were also found at the arsenal in Trenton. As the day wore on the Trolleys in Trenton and New Brunswick had armed drivers to ward off attacks. The people in Pitman filled churches. Chickens were missing and others were found dead with no marks on them.

The West Collingswood Fire Department also encountered the creature and fired their hose at it. The devil retreated but attempted  to charge before it flew away at the last second.

Later that evening, it attacked a dog in South Camden. Mary Sorbinski, hearing her dog's wails, grabbed a broom and headed outside where she struck the devil repeatedly. Eventually the Devil released her dog and fled but not before it caused serious injuries. Mary carried the wounded animal inside and called the police. A large crowd of spectators gathered to console her.

When the creature's screams were heard in the vicinity of Kaighn Hill, the officers leapt into action, firing their revolvers at the Devil, but again it flew off and evaded capture.

The Devil tried to attack another dog on Friday, but the bulldog, belonging to Mrs. D. W. Brown, attacked and drove the beast from the backyard.

Still, the devil remained undefeated and Camden police officer Louis Strehr saw the Devil drinking from a horses trough on the same day. The school in Mt Ephraim was closed, because no students showed up. Mills and factories in Gloucester and Hainesport also closed, because the employees refused to come to work. Many people were afraid to leave their homes even in the daylight.

All the while, the creature was making headline news in Philadelphia, and the Philadelphia Zoo offered a $10,000 reward for the devil's capture, claiming it would be of great educational significance if caught.

Yet, the Devil suddenly disappeared. No one reported a sighting for eighteen years.

In 1927, however, a Salem cab driver had a terrifying experience when a creature with long hair pounded the roof of his cab. He told police that he'd had an encounter with the Jersey Devil. His encounter had taken place when he'd stopped to fix a flat tire. The creature had landed on the roof of his cab to shake it violently. Seeing the long-haired creature, the cabbie fled, leaving the tire and jack behind.

In August, 1930, a group of berry pickers in Leeds Point and Mays Landing claimed that they saw  the devil. What's more, they claimed it ate all their berries.

The creature was spotted again on November 22, 1951 by a group of children who'd came to a party in Gibbstown. One of the boys said he'd seen the creature out the window, blood dripping from its face. The party host called the police, but the creature was gone by the time officers arrived.

The people hoped the Devil was dead when the Department of Conservation found a partial skeleton, surrounded by feathers,  in a burned out area of the pines.  The species of the corpse has never been identified.

If it was the devil, however, it arose from ashes to soar again.

In 1960, blood curdling screams were heard by several people in Mays Landing every night. Police could find nothing to account for the screams and tried to quiet hysteria by nailing posters to trees that said the Jersey Devil was a hoax. People poured into the area, nevertheless, to get a look at the devil, and circus owner, Harry Hunt, offered a $100,000 reward for the beast's capture, dead or alive.

In 1961, two couples were parked in the Pine Barrens when they heard a screeching noise outside. Suddenly the roof of the car was smashed in. They fled the scene but returned later. Again they heard the horrifying screech. They looked up to see a frightening creature flying along the trees, taking out huge chunks of bark.

The Devil struck again in 1966, raiding a farm and killing thirty-one chicks, three geese, four cats and two dogs. One of the dogs, a large German Shepherd, had it's throat ripped out.

The creature made another hit on the area between 1975-1976 with numerous reports that people had heard the creature's unearthly screams at night. And in 1987, it might have attacked again when an aggressive German Shepherd was found ripped to shreds and gnawed. It's body was found twenty-five feet from its chain and around the body were strange tracks that no one could identify.

Today, however, there are few reported sightings of Jersey Devil. Whether this is due to a decrease in incidents or because people are afraid to report them out of fear of being thought mad is unknown.

Were these incidents real or merely the result of hysteria or fancy?

Could the Devil have been a deformed child born to a backwoods woman?   Perhaps it was deformed and she hid it out of shame, inspiring outrageous stories? Or maybe the people made the sightings up out of boredom. Neither of these possibilities would account for the sightings by government officials and police officers. And there have been over 2,000 documented sightings of this beast.

There's also evidence that a Mrs. Leeds did live in the area at the time of the creature's birth, and the Jersey Devil sightings are intimately tied to the name "Leeds." Alfred Heston, Atlantic County Historian, believes that the Devil was a Leeds or a Shrouds baby, for two good reasons:  he discovered that a Daniel Leeds opened land in Great Egg Harbor, New Jersey, in 1699, and that the Leeds family lived in Leeds Point; he also discovered that a Samuel Shrouds, Sr. arrived in Little Egg Harbor, New Jersey, in 1735 and lived right across the river from the house of Mother Leeds.

Still most of the people who live in the "Piney's" today believe that the Jersy Devil is merely a myth, and there are many theories to account for the existence of the devil.

One theory is that the Jersey Devil is merely a bird, possibly the scrowfoot dick, but many believe that the bird is much too small to be mistaken for the devil.

Others believe the creature is a sand hill crane, many of which used to live in South Jersey until they were pushed out of their habitat by man. The sand hill crane weighs about twelve pounds and is about four feet tall with a wingspan of approximately eighty inches. Though it tries to avoid humans, it will fight if confronted. And like the Devil, it has a loud whooping voice that can be heard at a distance and may be mistaken for a scream. The crane eats potatoes and corn, which could account for the raids on crops, however, since the crane doesn't eat meat, this theory doesn't explain the attacks on livestock and the sand hill crane certainly doesn't have a horse's head, bat wings, or tail.

Interestingly, after studying the tracks, some experts believe the creature is a pterodactyl, a winged creature from the Jurassic period. An expert from the Smithsonian Institute believes that the ancient creatures might have survived underground in caves. The Academy of Natural Sciences, however, could find no record of a creature, living or extinct, that resembles the Jersey Devil.

Some people believe that the Devil was merely a deformed child that was locked up. When Mother Leeds grew ill and could no longer feed it, it fled and raided farms in search of food. However, it's unlikely that a deformed child could have lived for more than 260 years. And how could a deformed child fly?

Most of the sightings could not be hoaxes, because there were too many tracks over a long areas to make a hoax feasible. In addition, the Devil was seen by police and government officials numerous times.

So could the Devil be an actual demon, an embodiment of evil? Many people believe this is true. The Devil was said to be an "uncanny harbinger of war" and appeared before many great conflicts, and this could be because of possible demonic origins. The Jersey Devil was seen before the start of the Civil War; and it was seen before the Spanish American War and World War I. In 1939, before World World II, Mount Holly citizens were awakened by the noise of hooves on their roof tops. And the devil was seen on December 7, 1941, before Pearl Harbor was bombed and again before the Vietnam War.

There are also many other facts that support a supernatural theory.  When Commodore Decatur fired a cannon ball at the beast, it was unaffected though the ball went through it, and there's also the situation involving the rail road track where the creature set off a strange explosion and disappeared.

Also, the creature flew incredible distances in a short amount of time. No animal could travel as fast as the devil did in 1909, leaving tracks all over the place when the devil was sighted in South Jersey, Philadelphia, and New York in the span of one week.

None of these theories can give a definitive answer about  what the Jersey Devil was or is, or tell us whether the Jersey devil is a bird, demon, or ancient creature thought to be extinct, but whatever it is, there's definitely something lurking in the Pine Barrens..and it may be waiting to strike again.